Book Review: How Few Remain

by Michael D. Pederson

How Few RemainHarry TurtledoveDel Rey, 596 pp.

The latest book from the undisputed master of the alternative history novel is not a disappointment. Once again, Turtledove uses the “What if the South won the Civil War?” premise to hang his story on. However, this is not a sequel to his popular Guns of the South. Instead, How Few Remain is set in 1881, twenty years after the Confederacy’s victory, and the North and South are once again in conflict. This time the dispute is over who is going to lay claim to the Mexican Territories. When the South moves in, the North declares war. Unfortunately, Dixie is now backed by England and France (this is how they won the war) so the outcome isn’t as certain as we would expect. Turtledove uses major historical ﬁgures as his main characters: Lincoln, Longstreet, Jackson, Stuart, Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, and Samuel Clemens. Accurate, well-written, and extremely believable. A must read for fans of alternative history.